Monday, 10 December 2012

TV Program Halted After Government Criticism [Even the UN can be intimidated into silence by Hun Sen]

The U.N.-funded television program “Equity Weekly,” whose stated aim
is to promote good governance through short investigative journalism
pieces broadcast on state-run TVK, was suspended last month, the U.N.
Development Program (UNDP) said.

The suspension of the popular show followed criticism from the
government over the content of a recent feature on economic land
concessions.

“It was a joint decision between the Ministry of Information and UNDP
to temporarily suspend the ‘Equity Weekly’ show,” a spokesperson from
the UNDP said in an email. “Several stories elicited strong reactions
from the government and the general public.”

The UNDP did not say which stories in particular had spurred strong
reaction from the government. The UNDP spokesperson said U.N. officials
will be meeting with TVK soon to discuss the future of the program,
funding for which will continue.

Broadcast for about 40 minutes every Sunday evening since 2007,
“Equity Weekly’s” uncensored content is more hard-hitting by far than
TVK’s closely vetted news content.

In their final broadcast, the host of “Equity Weekly,” Khem Vuthy,
spent 25 minutes apologizing for a report made on September 30, which
discussed the positive and negative effects of 50,000 hectares of
economic land concessions shared by at least six private companies in
the Virachey National Park in Ratanakkiri province.

“We would like to start the show with a correction. On our show aired
on September 30, during our story about the alleged land concessions in
the [Virachey] National Park, we failed to notify the viewers on the
screen that some of the video used was archive footage from a different
location,” Mr. Vuthy said.

“This was an unintentional error from our part and we apologize to
all our viewers for the misunderstanding and confusion that this may
have caused.”

Conservationists and human rights groups have strongly criticized the
recent surge in land concessions in Ratanakkiri and elsewhere, saying
that some plantations cut deep into Cambodia’s remaining pristine
forests, while they also affect local farmland and the forest-based
livelihoods of indigenous people.

During the last episode of the show on November 11, the host also
announced that the Ministry of Information had sent TVK a five-page
letter with a complaint from the Ministry of Environment over the
Virachey National Park land concessions program.

“[It’s] an appropriate time to review [‘Equity Weekly’] and try to
set new objectives to adapt to the fast changing media landscape in
Cambodia. The UNDP has suggested to have a joint review taskforce
between UNDP and TVK teams to review the production process and explore
the best possible ways to move forward,” the UNDP spokesperson added.

A source working for the TV show, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity due to the sensitivity surrounding the show’s suspension, said
that the contract between The UNDP and TVK to produce “Equity Weekly”
programs runs until April 2013 and that staff will continue getting paid
until then.

TVK Director-General Kem Gunawadh said that he had no knowledge of the matter.

“I did not hear about it yet because I received no information from [the] Ministry of Information,” he said.

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith could not be contacted for comment.

Ouy Bounmy, a senior producer for “Equity Weekly,” said the decision
to cut the program had been made due to a scheduled break during the
Asean Summit last month, as well as financial problems. He also said the
suspension would only be temporary.

“[The suspension] is about funding shortage and we will resume in the next two weeks.”

Brian Lund, director of Oxfam America’s East Asia regional office,
which is part of Oxfam International and also funds “Equity Weekly”
alongside the UNDP, said he did not want to comment on the programming
controversy.

“We are still supporting ‘Equity [Weekly]’ until April next year and
probably beyond that because it is a valuable platform,” Mr. Lund said.

3 comments:

These all NGOs are the unofficial opposition parties which can act to scrutinize and act as a check and balance to steer the government to the right directions. Their criticisms are healthy and constructive. Hun Sen is a dictator and he can never understand the principle of democracy.

Between Tea Banh and Hun Sen, who would you support? គាំទ្រ ហ៊ុន សែន ឬ ទា បាញ់?

Between Hun Sen and Sok An, who would you support? គាំទ្រ ហ៊ុន​ សែន ឬ សុខ អាន?

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